The week in pictures: 31 August 2012

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is carried in a "pa'ata" by students from St Joseph's Primary School during the opening ceremony of the Pacific Islands Forum in Avarua on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. The Pacific Islands Forum opened in the Cook Islands with a colourful Polynesian welcome for leaders of the 15-nation grouping, who were carried aloft to the summit venue on litters.Picture: Marty Melville/AFP/GettyImages